ZakStunts
Long name: Zak McKracken's Stunts Competition, or Zak's Stunts Competition. An online competition running continuously since March 2001, now in its 13th season it holds the title of the longest running competition. It was also the first competition which required racers to drive different cars each month, and also the first one to implement a fully automatic php based replay sending form and scoreboard system. Although there were competitions with higher number of participants, ZakStunts is generally considered the most influential competition of the online Stunts community.
History of ZakStunts
2001
The first season only started in March, and only had 9 tracks, as one track, during the summer lasted for two months. The original concept included the Opponents commenting the sent replays. Competitors mainly arrived from the biggest and best of the time - the Kalpen Competition, and achieved 10 racers/month at most.
The winner of the season was Roy Wiegerinck, with Ben Snel and manager Zak McKracken finishing close.
2002
The second season was the first full-length season of ZakStunts. As the Kalpen Competition closed and others not so popular, ZakStunts took the reputation of the biggest and most prestigious competition on the web. This season Teams were introduced, and racers started to cooperate with each other, or in some strange cases with themselves, using Ghosts. Racer number reached an incredible 20/month, and the number of replays sent started to get unbearable for the manager. Also ZakStunts didn't only host a competition, but served as an abandonware site too, offering various racing games for download - so raising the number of the site visitors and the racers.
During the summer months, three so called "Special" tracks were presented, with their averaged result counting as one competition track. These tracks required Cheated cars or Special rules to finish, and have shown the potential of some newcomers. From October a new feature, Leading Time Bonus, was introduced as opposite to a negative effect of Time hiding.
The winner of the season was expert driver Bonzai Joe while Alan Rotoi, aka. 'The Dog' came second even though he joined the competition only in April. The former champion, Roy Wiegerinck, finished third.
2003
The third season gave a BIG twist to ZakStunts. Introduced a completely insane point system, and the Dual League, where the top 10 drivers formed the Pro league, and the others the Amateur league, Relegations/place changes on the last/first three places took place each month, Pro/Amateur drivers raced the same tracks.
Of course in order to handle this excessive amount of activity and replays, a semi-automatized PHP system was created and installed by Zak McKracken, where racers could send the replays online, with the help of a web form, and so their times immediately appeared on the Scoreboard. ZakStunts also stopped to work as an abandonware site, as the required number of racers seemed to be reached (around 20/month)
In this season, the competition got really fierce and hard, and a previously unknown amount of teamwork was shown by the teams. The community life was also flourishing, with the forum running and night-long chats taking place in the IRC chatroom.
Apart from all this chaos, a secondary competition (called ACT) was also hosted, with tracks designed each month by the winner of The 2002 Track Design Contest (TDC), Akoss Poo. We can conclude, that 2003 was perhaps the busiest season of ZakStunts.
Winner of the season was frenchman Alain from the dominating team Orion, former champion Bonzai Joe came second, and the third place on the podium was reached by Akoss Poo.
2004
In its fourth season ZakStunts tried to return to a simpler form. Dual League and secondary competition were dropped, and the point system was also simplified. In order to restrict heavy teamwork, the maximum number of team members was reduced to 4. Another improvement was the TDB rule, which similar to the 107% rule in Formula One, gave one bonus point to the drivers close to the leader.
Racer number dropped to an average of 15/month, and the site visitor number to its half. Still, community life was going on, and in August the first World Stunts Meeting took place in Budapest.
With team Orion falling apart, new top drivers appeared. Thanks to Alan Rotoi a very strong South-American Stunts scene evolved, and the better racers started to appear on ZakStunts too. One of them became champion: Gutix. In a hard battle, Akoss Poo came second, and former champion Bonzai Joe third.
2005
In 2005, the rules were more simplified, and the original, simple linear point system was reintroduced with the aid of the successful LTB The goal of ZakStunts was no more gathering new racers, but to present a demanding competition for the top dogs. Still, the number of participants was a huge surprise, surpassing 30 racers on some tracks. Racers who would have got zero points received fraction points, so a ranking still could be made.
The community became more compact, but also more active, altough many former regulars have left, there were still 15 racers, who raced on all, or almost all the tracks. We also had the unforgettable second WSM in Denmark.
Team race was dominated by the Argentinian team created by Alan Rotoi: Meganium Aces High. Alan only stayed in the background, managing his students, like former champion Gutix, and the new champion, who raced like thunder, but never talked: Ayrton. Former champion Alain made a successful comeback, and finished second, while the third was the highly evolving Hungarian: CTG
2006
This year not much has changed. The system stayed the same - as it was considered successful, only the first 15 racers received points, not the top twelve. The overall racer number decreased a lot, but there was still a hard core, with 15 racers there, almost each month. Another meeting took place, again in Budapest, perhaps a bit more quiet than the previous ones, but we greeted each other as good old friends, and parted as even better ones :)
This season was the battle of the teams. Meganium Aces High, Cork's Crew and Orion all battled for the Team Champion title, but finally the reborn Orion won beating "Oldies" Cork's and "Dog team" Meganium.
Nobody managed to win the ZakStunts twice until 2008 - and suprisingly this year again a newbie won the battle: Renato Biker from Brazil, under the guidance of former champion Alain. CTG made another step of improvement, and arrived second, while the best live racer Bonzai Joe came third.
At the end of the season, manager Zak McKracken started to prepare for his state exam and so started lose his motivation, racer number and community activity dropped significantly. Something had to change.
2007
This year was a major turnaround again. As there were many successful and actively managed competitions running beside ZakStunts, something exceptional had to be offered. The idea was to have special rules each month, similar to the ones used on the summer bonus tracks of 2002.
Altough some of the rules turned out to be quite intresting and funny, racer number and activity dropped and dropped , barely reaching 10/month, and the manager's motivation sunk with it. Still, the decreased number of racers didn't mean the drop of the competition value, races were still hard as a rock.
Earlier ZakStunts hosted some guest track designers, but during the summertime, track design was completely handed over to the always fresh, active (and horny :)) Krys TOFF. A competition without a manager is not a competition - even if it runs by itself. During the summer a season shortening to 9 tracks was announced, and after the 8th track of the season (and the 78th of ZakStunts), when CTG being the new champion was assured - the competition paused for an indefinite period.
The break did good to the manager :) He was thinking a lot, and eventually found out, that he can't live without his competition. After several new ideas born and buried, the concept of the 2008 season was announced, and the last track of the current season presented: no Special rules, and a well-known track: Default.
2008
2008 was the rebirth of ZakStunts. The manager admitted that the concept of the special rules was a failure, but as many of the other current successful competitions announced planned closure, there was a need for ZakStunts to go on, and let Stunts live forward.
The new concept of 2008 can be best defined as "the freedom of choice". Everyone was allowed drive with his chosen car and the achieved times are multiplied with pre-set bonus percentages based on car tests. This way everyone can bring out the best of his talent, using the most favorite or most suitable car for the track.
After a few minor problems the concept seemed to work fine. Some driver criticized the new concept as it demands more time from the racers and makes the creation of race statistics really hard, but the positive results were clear to see: more racers and more replays sent.
The main problem of the new car bonus percentage system was the problem of the ever-growing bonuses, which was temporarily solved with bonus adjustments throughout the season. However with the new rule set of the 2009 season this problem was resolved.
The level of the 2008 competition was clearly above the 2007 level, approaching previously seen lower-activity seasons, such as 2006 and 2004.
The season was special in the aspect of winner. One racer could do what others could not done before: Ayrton won the ZakStunts title for the second time, by winning all the tracks throughout the month. Racers of the newer generations, Duplode and Mark L. Rivers came second and third.
2009
The 2009 season brought only minor changes and corrections to the 2008 rules, mostly to minimize the advantage PG cars used to have with the bonus system. Additionally, custom cars were added to the car pool. As the community got stronger, the team championship was also restarted after its one-year break, with both old and new teams taking part. The first races had very high racer activity - comparable to 2005 levels, with several newbies appearing. A parallel competition, the Newbie League, was set up in order to further motivate the new racers.
2009 will be remembered as the season of comebacks due to the many competition legends who returned to the scoreboards. The climax of the season was ZCT100, the historical 100th race of the competition, of which all ZakStunts champions took part. As for the season results, Duplode took the title, with CTG second and Bonzai Joe third. Several other racers challenged for race wins as well, but none of them raced consistently through the whole season. Similar facts happened in team contest, with the title returning to Cork's Crew for the first time since 2002.
2010
The 10th ZakStunts season continued with a slightly adjusted 2009 ruleset. A major improvement to note was the revamped archive system including all results from 2004 in an easy to access interface.
This season was characterized by a low, but steady number of racers, and the almost complete lack of newbies. Former racers from all around the past years of ZakStunts raced, but there were no newcomers staying with the community for a longer term, and the newbie scoreboards were almost empty throughout the season. Community life in the forum was quite passive too.
Even though the racer number was low compared to previous seasons, the level of competition was quite high, and a place on the podium was never given easily.
We crowned our second double champion, Gutix, who dominated the season. Former champions Renato Biker and Duplode came second and third. The team trophy was taken back by MeganiuM Aces High.
2011
The 11th ZakStunts season started after a short delay, on the first of February, due to the personal changes in Zak McKracken's life. The set of available custom cars was revised, and there were minor adjustments to the bonus system; other than that rules were left pretty much unchanged.
The season had a rocky start, with racer activity reaching dangerously close to 2007 levels. There was marked improvement through the second half of the year, however; and newbie activity was slightly higher than in 2010.
The title race in 2011 was dominated by the champions of the previous two years, Duplode and Gutix, who had eight victories between them. Largely on the basis of regularity, Duplode sealed the title and became a double champion, with Gutix and AbuRaf70 completing the season podium. Meanwhile, MeganiuM ensured the team trophy would remain in Argentina in a season in which all of its four active racers managed at least one race medal.
2012
ZakStunts 2012 opened with a few rule changes, the most important of them being that overall scores would be calculated dropping the four worst results of each racer (as opposed to the two worst ones, as it had been previously), and endurance bonus points would be given to reward participation in more than eight races. Unlike in previous seasons, car bonuses were not reset at the beginning of the season, taking advantage of the improved stability of the multi-car system to provide more even car-switching dynamics.
The 2012 season was full of positives, including significantly increased activity both on and off the scoreboards, highly-rated tracks and some truly memorable battles. Duplode managed to retain the ZakStunts crown, thus becoming the first triple champion of the competition. Unusually for ZakStunts, his title defence was largely sustained by a very strong start to the season, with victories in the first three races. Overall, there was no clear domination of the scoreboards neither by the champion nor by anyone else. At one point, Gutix appeared to be mounting a serious challenge, but it faded away towards the end of the season. Renato Biker was in astonishing form throughout the European summer; having missed the first five rounds, however, he was not in contention for the title. Neither of these South American challengers made it to the final podium, however. Instead, returning Friker established himself as a top racer with a second place, a mere two points ahead of CTG, who completed the podium. As for the team competition, Cork's Crew recovered the title after two consecutive MeganiuM Aces High victories. Another remarkable fact about the season is that, after more than three years, there were two new race winners in the closing rounds of 2012: SuperBrian in Z136 and Friker in Z137.
2013
Evergreen ZakStunts began 2013 with minor rule adjustments, aimed at correcting some distortions introduced by the changes in the previous year. The three, rather than four, worst results of each racer were now discounted, and the maximum endurance bonus points was cut by half. Most noticeably, the list of allowed custom cars was modified. The beloved Melange returned to ZakStunts; additionally, the McLaren Honda MP4/4 and the ZR1 GT3 were included. Skyline, Speedgate and Superkart had to make way for the introduced cars.
To be continued...
Season Podiums
Racers
| Rank | Racer | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Duplode | Cork's Crew | 108 |
| 2 | Friker | No Team | 96 |
| 3 | CTG | Damage Inc. | 94 |
| Rank | Racer | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Duplode | Cork's Crew | 113 |
| 2 | Gutix | MeganiuM Aces High | 100 |
| 3 | AbuRaf70 | MeganiuM Aces High | 82 |
| Rank | Racer | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gutix | MeganiuM Aces High | 129 |
| 2 | Renato Biker | Average Joe | 117 |
| 3 | Duplode | Cork's Crew | 104 |
| Rank | Racer | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Duplode | Cork's Crew | 123 |
| 2 | CTG | Damage Inc. | 104 |
| 3 | Bonzai Joe | Cork's Crew | 83.1 |
| Rank | Racer | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ayrton | MeganiuM Aces High | 127 |
| 2 | Duplode | No Team | 93 |
| 3 | Mark L. Rivers | No Team | 88 |
| Rank | Racer | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CTG | No Team | 111 |
| 2 | Mark L. Rivers | No Team | 102 |
| 3 | Chulk | MeganiuM Aces High | 82 |
| Rank | Racer | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Renato Biker | Orion | 154.5 |
| 2 | CTG | Looping Warriors | 137 |
| 3 | Bonzai Joe | Cork's Crew | 122 |
| Rank | Racer | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ayrton | MeganiuM Aces High | 121 |
| 2 | Alain | Orion | 102 |
| 3 | CTG | Damage Inc & Cork's Crew | 98 |
| Rank | Racer | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gutix | MeganiuM Aces High | 219 |
| 2 | Akoss Poo | Looping Warriors | 175 |
| 3 | Bonzai Joe | Cork's Crew | 159 |
| Rank | Racer | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alain | Orion | 100 |
| 2 | Bonzai Joe | Cork's Crew | 89 |
| 3 | Akoss Poo | Opponent Near | 75 |
| Rank | Racer | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bonzai Joe | Cork's Crew | 17.29 |
| 2 | Alan Rotoi | MeganiuM Aces High | 16.03 |
| 3 | Roy Wiegerinck | Flying Dutchmen | 15.90 |
| Rank | Racer | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roy Wiegerinck | Flying Dutchmen | 15.07 |
| 2 | Ben Snel | Flying Dutchmen | 13.94 |
| 3 | Bonzai Joe | Intercontinental Racing | 12.25 |
Teams
| Rank | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cork's Crew | 211 |
| 2 | Meganium Aces High | 174 |
| 3 | Damage Inc. | 154 |
| Rank | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | MeganiuM Aces High | 202 |
| 2 | Cork's Crew | 191 |
| 3 | Average Joe | 122 |
| Rank | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | MeganiuM Aces High | 216 |
| 2 | Average Joe | 189 |
| 3 | Cork's Crew | 185 |
| Rank | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cork's Crew | 226 |
| 2 | Damage Inc | 163 |
| 3 | MeganiuM Aces High | 120 |
| No team competition was held in 2008 |
|---|
| Rank | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Meganium Aces High | 198 |
| 2 | Damage Inc | 158 |
| 3 | Cork's Crew | 93 |
| Rank | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Orion | 276 |
| 2 | Meganium Aces High | 266 |
| 3 | Cork's Crew | 263 |
| Rank | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Meganium Aces High | 242 |
| 2 | Cork's Crew | 174 |
| 3 | Orion | 149 |
| Rank | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Meganium Aces High | 301 |
| 2 | Cork's Crew | 269 |
| 3 | Looping Warriors | 251 |
| Rank | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Orion | 4026.39 |
| 2 | Opponent Near | 3990.92 |
| 3 | Cork's Crew | 3986.08 |
| Rank | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cork's Crew | 136 |
| 2 | Flying Dutchmen | 122.2 |
| 3 | Looping Warriors | 93.6 |
Medal Table
| Rank | Racer | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ayrton | 23 | 6 | 3 |
| 2 | Gutix | 22 | 11 | 8 |
| 3 | Renato Biker | 18 | 10 | 6 |
| 4 | Duplode | 16 | 17 | 11 |
| 5 | CTG | 14 | 20 | 21 |
| 6 | Bonzai Joe | 13 | 19 | 14 |
| 7 | Roy Wiegerinck | 11 | 2 | 0 |
| 8 | Alain | 8 | 9 | 9 |
| 9 | Argammon | 7 | 6 | 3 |
| 10 | Alan Rotoi | 6 | 7 | 5 |
| 11 | Mingva | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| 12 | Fdzierva | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 | Akoss Poo | 1 | 9 | 12 |
| 14 | Chulk | 1 | 6 | 4 |
| 15 | Mark L. Rivers | 1 | 4 | 7 |
| 16 | Friker | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| 17 | Bismarck | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 18 | SuperBrian | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| 19 | Usrin | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 20 | Zak McKracken | 0 | 5 | 7 |
| 21 | AbuRaf70 | 0 | 2 | 8 |
| 22 | Ben Snel | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| 23 | Dottore | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 24 | Sylvain Chabert | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Dark Chaser | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Overdrijf | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| 27 | Pershing II | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| XDude_NL | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
| Krys Toff | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
| 30 | Paulo Ribeiro | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Vamologocomisso | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| dstien | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Dexter Morgan | 0 | 0 | 1 |
